Improved apparatus for amalgamating gold and silver



UNITED STATES .PATENT Ormea.

H. H.' SCOVILLE AND P. W. GATES, OIF-CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

Specification formingl part of Letters Patent No. 44,3413., dated September 20. 1864.

To all whom it mayconcern:

-Be it known that WerH. H. SCOVILLE and P. W. GATES, of Chicago, ACook county, State of Illinois, have Iinvented a new and Improved Amalgamator; and we do hereby declare that the followingis 'a Vfull, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being` had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specieation, in which- Figure lis a longitudinal vertical section through 'the center of our improved machine.' Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section through the scroll and its cylinder. Fig. 3 is a top view of our machine. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the discharge aperture of the scroll.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invent'icn-relates -teflanew andimproved machiuefor .the amalgamationy of metals, especially of gold, with a view to -the separation of the same from the mineral detritus, as will be hereinafter described.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, A' represents a wide-mouth hopper which opens into a cylinder, B,within which revolves ascroll, C, that has a central opening, a, communicating'vwith a chamber, D, as shown clearly in Fig; 1. This chamber D communicates at its upper end with a trough, E, within which revolves a drum, E', having tlat wings b arranged around its .circumference and seti obliquely toits axis. The bottom ofthe trough E inclines toward the deep chamber D, and the outer end of this trough has a. dischargeopening through it, as indicated at c, Fig. 1.

The drumE and the scroll U are driven by means of pulleys,-which are applied to their shafts outside of the frame-work. Gearing 0r any other convenient contrivance may be employed to drive said drum and scroll. A The scroll-cylinderis made up of two heads bolteden each end of a cylinder, and the scroll which rotates within this cylinder is composed ,of a number et buckets or curved plates, a a, arranged around a spiral central dischargeaperture, a, which is made through one of the scroll-heads F F in such manner that anything taken into the scroll will be discharged throughthis aperture into the deep chamberD. This scroll. which we have shown in the drawings,is constructed with six mouths g g,-- but wedo not confine ourselves 'to any definite number, a's more or less'may be used as may be found necessary. The principle of operation will be the same if only one mouth Vbe employed. v In the operation of our invention we prol pose to employ mercury, melted lead, or any- I thing which may be found best suited to the purpose of separating the gold from the quartz; i but in the description ot' the operation of our invention We will describe the use of mercury ,i as it is most commonly used in the separating i' process. The scroll will be kept about three- 4 quarters full of mercury and the quartz mixed l .with gold'will be put into the hopper A either in a dry state or mixed with Water., As the l scroll revolves the mouths g g will succesg sively take a portion ot' the light substance and carry it down into the body ofthe scroll,

g' where it will be mixed with the heavier substance (mercury) under considerable pressure, and finally discharged at the center of the l scroll through the aperture a and deposited into the chamber l). The lighter substance will immediately rise toithe surface of the liq-uid in chamber D, while theheavier substance will fallto the bottom of this chamber, g' where it can be removed al pleasure by means of a cock located in the bottom, as indicated at h, Fig. l. By extending the chamberl) below the center of the scroll a reservoir is g formed for the gold or amalgam which can g -be withdrawn as often as necessary withouttakingjthe wholeof the mercury out. The l drum E', at the upper end of the chamber D, Itogether with the trough E, forms aconveyer for carrying the quartz along and sepf mixed with it, and, as the'outer end of this i conveyeris the highest, the mercury Works its f way back to the Chamber D, from whence it g entersthe scroll-cylinder again through the gold within said scroll.

'i As we propose to use melted lead instead i o1" mercury for separa-ti n g goldor other'metals from their matrix, we will state that the leadcan be kept at the meltingepoint byapplyinglheat directly to the machine. A ser-ies ot' fscrolls maybe arranged separately on the f same shaft.4 1n that case the discharge for allv 1 the scrolls'would be a common one.

arating the particles of mercury which are v opening 3J, and is brought in contact with the- "We do noi'J claim to be the inventors of molten lead or its equivalent for separating gold, 85o., in our machine, as the use of lead for this purpose was rst suggested to us by -Matthew Lain, of Chicago, Illinois.

Having thus described our invention, wha't we claim as new, and desire to secure byrLetters Patent, is

l. The employment of a scroll, or its eonivlsilent, in the process of separating metals from their mineral matrix, snbseintiall;Y as described.

2. A scroll (having one or more mouths) nr ranged within n cylinder, in combination Wih a reservoir For receiving the substances discharged from snid scroll, substantially ns dcscribed.

3. The employment of ny separator, E l', or

its equivalent, in combination with' n scroll,

substantially :is described. v

' HIRAM H. scoviLLn.

l. W. GATES.

Witnesses:

J. L. Fumo, A. l). SrUR'rnvANT. 

